


Halcyon Days of Youth

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst and Humor, Eventual Loki/Tony Stark, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-13
Updated: 2015-01-14
Packaged: 2018-03-07 09:49:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3170405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony enters his sophomore year at Stark High, his life changes in ways he never imagined.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Day

Tony always dreaded the last days of summer. He felt that they were the Sunday of the season - days where you still could relax and have fun, but anything you did was spoiled by the anxiety of going back to school. Not that Tony was afraid to go back - after all, he was an A's and B's student, and being at school kept him from his butler, Jarvis, mothering him. It wasn't like Tony disliked the young man, who shared an interest in technology with him - it was just that Jarvis acted like a grandmother at times, always making food for him no matter how full he was, and giving him long spiels of advice. Other than that, Tony had a good relationship with the man. His relationship with his father, though, was a different story. Though Howard Stark didn't hate Tony, he ignored his son, as if Tony wasn't even there. If Tony got an A on a hard test, he just nodded and went back to his work. To Tony, work was all his dad cared about. He constantly wondered why people have kids if they don't want to pay any attention to them.

All of these thoughts were crowding Tony's mind as he tried to enjoy his final day of summer vacation. Normally, he'd be at Steve Rogers' house, playing video games with Steve's friend, Clint, who got rather colorful during games of Mario Kart, or taking his still-new car out for a long cruise. Instead, he was finishing the book report his English teacher had assigned all of her students to do over summer break. Who gave homework during the summer? Tony wasn't happy to spend the last day of his vacation working on an assignment he had once again saved until the last minute, but he didn't want to flunk English.

It took him a couple hours, but he eventually typed the last word of his essay. After printing it out, he sat back in his revolving desk chair and sighed. His summer had been great over all, but there were two events that dampened the fun. First, his mother died in a car crash. A week later, his girlfriend, Pepper, broke up with him, likely because of how moody he had been since her death. She suggested they could stay friends, but Tony knew that never worked out, so he decided to cut off the relationship entirely and just act like he didn't even know her. It was difficult to not think about all of the good times they had together, but he managed.

Because of all the thoughts buzzing through his head, Tony found it hard to sleep. That wasn't unusual, though, as Tony's brain was always wide awake at night. He was starting to think he had ADHD, since he also had what felt like a billion thoughts distracting him throughout the day, but he figured Howard didn't care about him enough to get him to a doctor. So he just tried to cope with it, though it wasn't the most fun thing in the world.

Excitement kept Tony up as well. He was more than happy to be a sophomore, because freshman year was confusing and humiliating. Now that he had gotten used to high school, he figured that he'd have a better year - maybe even find a new girlfriend. The latter wasn't very likely, he thought, but it was enough to make him feel at least somewhat happy about going back to school.

Tony's phone vibrated and he sighed. Darcy Lewis was always texting him late at night because she too had trouble falling asleep. He fumbled for his phone on his nightstand and when he found it, he read: _Hey, Tony Pepperoni. I just wanted to tell you that we'll be having English and biology together this year, so don't be surprised if I bug you to be my lab partner - after all, you're really smart._

Tony texted: _That's cool. I heard the sophomore English teacher is really hot, so I'm stoked._

_Of course you are. Well, have a nice first day, playboy._

Tony smiled and shut off his phone so he wouldn't be woken up by it. It took him a while, but he eventually fell asleep.

When he woke up, he realized he had slept in a bit, so he took the quickest shower he had ever taken and threw on the nicest clothes he could find. He brushed his teeth and took off to the bus, having no time for breakfast. When he got on, he sat next to Natasha Romanoff, who was in his opinion, one of the hottest girls in school. It wasn't just her beauty that drew him to her, but her intelligence and sharp sarcasm. He was rather jealous of Clint.

"Hey, Nat," Tony greeted. "You look even prettier than usual."

"Thanks, Casanova," Natasha said. "You don't look too bad yourself, but don't let that get to your head. Your ego's big enough already."

Over the bus ride, Tony spilled his guts to Natasha, telling her about everything that was bothering him. She was a good listener and gave the best advice. When the bus had stopped at Stark High, he felt a hundred times better. He waved goodbye to her as she dashed to her first class, though he knew he would see her again in US History.

The hallways were more crowded than ever, and Tony had to force himself not to yell at a group of gossiping girls who had stopped in the middle of the hall to talk. After stepping on a few people's shoes and almost getting tripped himself, he reached his locker and got out his new textbooks - Biology II, US History, Literature and Language Arts, Geometry, and Consumer Education. Though they didn't weigh very much on their own, they managed to be cripplingly heavy when he had to carry all of them at once. Well, he didn't _have to_ carry all of them at the same time - he just didn't like having to go back to his locker and getting caught in the crowd between classes.

His mind started wandering as he made his way to biology class and he bumped into someone and dropped all of his textbooks.

"Well, that was graceful," someone quipped. Tony looked up and went dead-silent when he saw who he bumped into.

The teenager in front of him had an undercut hairstyle with shiny black hair that fell to a couple inches above his shoulders, as well as the sharpest green eyes Tony had ever seen. His facial features were sharp with prominent high cheekbones and a slim jawline, and he had two brow piercings as well as snakebites and piercings all the way up his ear. He was dressed in a dark green T-shirt with a studded leather jacket and black jeans. Tony thought he was one of the hottest boys he had ever seen, though he was still questioning whether he was straight or not.

"Um, I-I'm sorry," Tony sputtered. "Are you new here?"

"No," the boy said. "I'm just usually ignored, so people think I'm new. I think we have biology together. Do you think you could be my lab partner? No one ever wants to be partners with me."

Tony nodded and said, "Sure. Uh, I'm Tony Stark, though you probably knew that already."

"Oh, so you're the famous Tony Stark. Really? I expected you to be taller. I'm Loki."

"Maybe I'm just short to you because you're so tall," Tony replied. He started following Loki to his class. "Why doesn't anyone want to be partners with you?"

"Because they're all convinced that I worship Satan," Loki admitted with a roll of his eyes. "I don't, but I guess looking the way I do makes people assume things. Doesn't anyone already want to be your lab partner considering that you're supposed to be one of the smartest kids in school?"

"Yeah, but she can always just pair up with someone else," Tony said. "I just don't want you to be left on your own. Hey, how come you have a British accent?"

"Do I? If I do, I don't know why, since I was born here. By the way, it's technically an English accent."

"Well, I like it," Tony replied with a joking wink, which made Loki laugh.

When they got to class, Tony sat next to Loki so he wouldn't be alone at his table. The biology room was set up with long tables instead of individual desks with four seats at each table. Darcy came over and sat next to Tony.

"Hey," Darcy said with a wave. "I see you're hanging out with the punk kid. What was his name again, Luke or something?"

"Loki," Loki corrected. "And I'm not very 'punk', as much as people like to assume I am."

Loki smiled when a girl of average height with long, golden blonde hair walked towards the table and timidly asked, "May I sit with you three? See, I'm kind of new to this school and I don't have many friends yet."

"It's okay, Sigyn," Loki told her. Sigyn sat down and straightened her clothing, which consisted of a floral blouse and a flowy white skirt with light pink leggings. "Your outfit looks very cute today."

Sigyn blushed and laughed a bit. "Thanks, Loki."

Tony could sense something between the two. "Are you two together?"

Loki and Sigyn nodded, which made Tony's heart sink. Though he had just met Loki and his father would give him hell if he had a boyfriend, it made Tony sad to think that there was someone in the way of him getting Loki's attention. Tony could see why Loki liked the girl - she had a sun-kissed glow to her, captivating light blue eyes, and adorable freckles across her nose and cheeks.

Tony stayed silent for the rest of the time until they got to work together on a group project. They were supposed to collaborate on a representation of a cell made with any craft supplies they wished. It was easy, but Tony found it tedious after a few minutes of gluing things together. He tried to make conversation, but despite her excitability, Darcy was completely in the zone along with Sigyn and Loki. By the time the period was over, they had gotten a good chunk of their project done.

At lunch, Tony sat with his usual group of friends - Steve, Clint, Natasha, and his friend in science, Bruce Banner. Thor wasn't at their table that day, but Tony saw that he was sitting with Loki and Sigyn, probably so they wouldn't be all alone.

"So, you're friends with _him?_ " Clint said, gesturing to Loki. "I don't know if that's a good idea, Tony. He might be... I don't know, into some bad stuff."

"Clint, don't judge people right on the spot," Natasha admonished. "He might just be like you and me. Appearance doesn't determine a person's character. Besides, I think he's Thor's brother. If you were to say anything bad about him, you'd be a goner."

"He's actually really cool," Tony explained. "I was chatting with him during free period and he's the lead singer and guitarist of a band. He's really smart and nice to talk to. He seems a bit angsty, but then again, that's how almost all teenagers are. And his sense of sarcasm rivals Natasha's and mine. And if you need someone to work with in English, he's an amazing writer. He shared some of his work with me and it was really good. Not your usual crappy, moody poems, but some really interesting short stories."

"Well, it's good that he has a friend now," Steve said. "Everyone else seems to be afraid of him. But from what you're saying, he sounds like a pretty good guy. Hey, Thor! Bring your brother over here!"

Thor came over to the table with Sigyn and Loki. "I know all of you know Loki. This is his girl, Sigyn. She's a new student, transferred from a private school. She's very kind, and not as meek as she may seem at first."

Sigyn gave a shy little wave and sat down next to Natasha. "Um, do you guys want to see some art I did? I'm pretty proud of it, though I know it's not the best..."

"Come on, don't be a little mouse," Natasha said with a smile. "Show us."

Sigyn held up a beautiful painting of a nature scene with green trees and wildflowers in a meadow. Everyone complimented her on it, making her blush.

"You know, Sigyn, I think this might actually be a good year for us," Loki said with a smile to his girlfriend. She nodded and went back to talking with the group.


	2. Hanging Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha throws a sleepover while her parents are on vacation and Loki has fun with the people she invites.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I continue this story?

The week seemed to pass faster than Tony ever thought it could. Maybe it was because of all of the fun he was having, or maybe his probable ADHD just made things seem to go by fast. Though Loki was somewhat reluctant to open up to him, he grew to enjoy Tony's company. Seeing Loki grow comfortable around him made Tony feel a new kind of happiness he had never felt before. The two seemed to always be together because Tony didn't want Loki to feel alone. They walked in the school halls together, chose each other as partners when an assignment required partnering up, ate lunch together, and spent free period with each other. This led to Clint joking that they were in love, but Loki could always shut him up with just one death glare.

The weekend had finally arrived, and though he wanted to give Loki some space, he wanted to spend some time with his friends. Because of that, it was perfect when Natasha texted him about a sleepover she had planned. Tony, Thor, Bruce, Steve, and Clint were all invited, as well as Sigyn, Loki, and two girls he didn't know the faces of - Jane Foster and Peggy Carter. Tony had never met Peggy or Jane before, but he figured they must be fun to hang out with since Natasha invited them. The look on Loki's face when he read the text to him as quietly as possible in the library made Tony laugh. Completely erasing any toughness he had to his look, Loki had widened his eyes and gone completely silent for a moment. Then, he broke into a grin.

Ever since he met Loki, Tony had always loved to see the boy happy. It wasn't very often that Loki smiled, but when he did, Tony swore it was one of the best sights in the world, as well as one of the rarest. Because of how little Loki showed any happiness, Tony tried to talk to Loki about his moody, almost depressed-seeming attitude, but Loki always told Tony not to worry about him. That frustrated Tony to no end, but he figured that if Loki wanted to be left alone about it, he should be left alone. To try and cheer Loki up, Tony always told him jokes, most of them bad puns since he learned that Loki had a weakness for terrible puns. He also always texted Loki good morning and goodnight, his main intention being to make Loki feel like he was cared about.

Tony drove to Natasha's house and found that just as she said, her parents weren't there. His friends were all there, as well as two brunettes, which he assumed were Jane and Peggy. Sigyn and Loki arrived minutes later, Sigyn in another nice floral blouse and a dusty pink skirt, and Loki in a green V-neck, grey jeans, and his usual leather jacket. They sat on the longest couch Tony had ever seen together, holding hands. The sight made Tony admittedly sort of jealous, but he told himself that he had only recently met Loki and there was no breaking the two apart.

Natasha ordered pizza, which the entire group ate while making casual conversation. To everyone's surprise, Sigyn was very talkative and an active participant in the group's conversation. Loki was rather quiet, but he spoke more than Tony had seen him speak at the lunch table.

"Loki, why don't you sing for us?" Tony suggested. "You're a great singer."

Loki's eyes widened slightly and he said, "But I don't have my guitar with. Also, I can't think of any songs to sing."

"Why not My Heart Will Go On?" Bruce joked, which made everyone laugh.

"No way."

"You like Nine Inch Nails," Tony said. "You could sing 'Hurt', since you channel emotion very well into your voice."

Loki's expression went dead serious. "That song hits a little too close to home."

That was when Tony noticed something he had never noticed before - there were track marks on both of Loki's arms. Tony blanched, but decided not to say anything about it. He would pull Loki aside later and talk to him about it. "That's okay. You don't have to sing if you're not comfortable with it."

Meanwhile, the rest of the group had gone back to chatting as if nothing had happened. They got on the subject of crushes and Jane asked Tony, "Okay, boys, who's the hottest girl in school?"

"Well, it's obviously you," Thor answered, which made Jane smile and blush slightly.

"It's totally Nat," Clint replied.

"No, it's Sigyn," Loki said rather seriously.

"I think we can all agree that Natasha is objectively pretty hot," Peggy said. "If I wasn't straight and Clint wasn't her boyfriend, I would totally date her."

"Ooooh, someone's got a girl crush!" Jane teased, causing the group to erupt into giggles.

"Hey, Loki, why don't you show everyone your tongue?" Thor said. "Guys, he's got a split tongue. I dared him to get it done since everyone says he has a forked tongue because of how good of a liar he is."

Loki stuck his tongue out at Thor, and it was indeed split. Everyone told him that it was cool, except for Steve, who appeared squeamish as he said, "I don't really like the idea of that. I mean, it's totally fine that you got yours split, but I'm a total wimp when it comes to handling pain."

"Steve, don't say that," Peggy said with a smile, nudging the blond. "You're my superhero."

"Alright, do you guys want to play truth or dare?" Natasha asked with the smirk that Tony knew meant she was going to cause some mischief. "But no dares to kissing people. That gets annoying."

"I dare Tony to reduce the size of his ego," Clint said, drawing laughs from everyone else.

"Be serious."

"Well, then I dare Loki to - wait, Tony, where are you going with him?"

Tony had already pulled Loki aside when he heard Clint's question. He sighed, not sure how to go about talking to Loki about what he saw. He decided to be upfront and said, "Loki, I saw some track marks on your arms. Do you do drugs?"

"I used to," Loki confessed. "I was in a bad episode of depression when I discovered how good heroin could make me feel. I'm not proud of doing it at all. Eventually, it caught up with me, and I had to go to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Wasn't the funnest thing in the world. But now I'm clean, though whenever I'm depressed, I get strong urges to shoot up again. Please don't hate me for this."

"I don't hate you, and I never would," Tony said. "I just don't want you to be doing such things. You could really ruin your brain by doing drugs, and since you're basically a genius, I suggest that you don't do that. Wait, you have depression?"

Loki nodded and replied, "Major depressive disorder. It sucks. I-I feel so ashamed to be telling you this, but I used to cut myself. But I didn't do it on my arms where people could see. I did it on my thighs and just made sure to wear longer shorts in the summer. It was probably one of the worst decisions of my life - I mean, to start cutting. Because eventually, I grew psychologically addicted to it. And when my mother found out... god, I felt so bad. She was crying for days. I'm just so lucky to have her as my mother, because any other mom would've disowned me by now."

"She sounds like a good mom," Tony responded in earnest. "What about your dad? How did he react to it?"

"He was disappointed in me," Loki answered with a frown. "I hated that. I'd rather get yelled at than have my parents disappointed in me. It's one of the worst feelings in the world, at least to me. And when they found out that I was doing heroin... well, that day wasn't fun at all. They were completely disappointed in me and giving me the silent treatment. Thor was the one who got me going to NA meetings, and he supported me as I recovered from my addiction. If it weren't for him, I don't know where I'd be right now. Probably prison, actually."

Tony nodded and said, "Well, I'm sorry that you have depression. I mean, it's gotta suck to feel like your brain is working against you. But I'm proud of you, for overcoming both of your addictions."

Loki smiled wider than Tony had ever seen him smile. To his surprise, Loki gave him a hug, which made his heart beat so fast that he felt like it was going to pop out of his chest.

"Thank you," Loki said quietly. "You have no idea how good it feels when someone's proud of me. Well, I suppose we'd better get back to the others before they start looking for us."

When Tony and Loki had returned to the living room, they played Cards Against Humanity with everyone else. Loki and Natasha ended up at a tie because they turned out to share a dry, sardonic sense of humor. Steve had blushed visibly at all of the sex-related cards, which made Bruce and Tony giggle like little girls.

For the rest of the night, they watched a movie and played video games. To everyone's surprise, Sigyn and Steve got even more colorful in language than Clint when playing Mario Kart. Bruce had to timidly remind them it was just a game, though they were still yelling at anyone who blue-shelled them. Though it got very loud and pretty heated, playing video games with everyone made Loki happier than Tony had ever seen him. Everyone was laughing so hard that tears came to their eyes when Bruce and Peggy had to do a duet in a Just Dance game from getting the two lowest scores out of the group. Loki turned out to be a rather good dancer, something that didn't surprise Tony.

Everyone fell asleep at around 3 AM, but Loki woke Tony up an hour later with a nudge. "I woke up from a nightmare and I can't fall back asleep."

"Just think of cute kittens rolling around in catnip," Tony mumbled. "That should make you feel less scared. What was your nightmare about?"

"I was drowning," Loki replied. "But I wasn't drowning in water, I was... I was drowning in a void in space. I know that doesn't make any sense, but apparently my brain thought it did."

"Think of the kittens."

Loki laughed and quickly fell back asleep, which made Tony smile. Soon, he was asleep as well.


End file.
